GM 101: Why is Session Zero Important?

I often see the question “What is Session Zero?” on social media… or if they haven’t heard of “Session 0” before, one might see a complaint like “I wanted a wilderness-savvy ranger traveling between settlements and exploring the frontier, but everything in our campaign is in this giant capital city. I never get to use my character’s [insert favored class abilities here] and feel less than useful in the game… What can I do?”

[ UPDATE: I also talk a bit more about Session 0 in my video blog here: https://youtu.be/q2cOMVfdJoU ]

Expectations

Session 0 is about setting expectations. It provides a way for the GM to outline what the campaign is about, give a rough sketch of setting details, what races, classes or other options are available (or if any do not exist or have some caveat) and any other details pertinent to to the players prior to character creation.

It also serves as a place to come to an agreement about the game. Remember that D&D and similar RPGs are a shared storytelling experience. It is not wholly up to the GM to dictate everything about the game, unless the players are fine with being passive about the game world particulars.

Episode 1: Nightstone and Chapter 3 - Running Storm King's Thunder

I started out my blog posts on Storm King’s Thunder as a series of articles, but there is just so much to talk about, it’s just much quicker to do some extemporaneous videos instead of writing it all out (ain’t nobody got time for that). I have a lot to say, and video seems to be the better medium... So this is kind of a video reboot of the SKT series. This first episode focuses on the introductory chapters of Storm King’s Thunder and tips for starting out. Forgive me if I meander a bit. Episode 2 will be much tighter (30 minutes) with more of a scripted outline.

In this episode, I discuss:

• Tom Lommel’s Disorganized Play videos (1:30)
• Getting a handle on the sprawling Chapter 3 hooks and scenarios. (3:20)
• Using a Google Doc (or other note software) to mine ideas out of Chapter 3. (8:00)
• Write a one-sheet summary or encounter packet for upcoming encounters. (12:00)
• Coming up with better introductory hooks than the weak ones in the book. (13:00)
• The perils of using Storm King’s Thunder outside of the Forgotten Realms. (16:50)
• Stealing other’s ideas. (19:00)
• Teasing the broader story and mystery to the players. (19:40)
• Tying the Nightstone attack back into the larger plot. (22:00)
• Buffing Nightstone for higher level parties. (23:30)
• Making set piece encounters more interesting with 3D visuals. (29:00)
• Dollar store deals on gaming paper. (31:00)
• More on 3D visuals and crafting. (34:20)
• Teasing an upcoming video on the adventure in Dungeon #144. (38:00)

Some images of my 3D set ups using papercraft, styrofoam, Dwarven Forge, or even Lego.

D&D Miniatures: New Plastics from Hero Forge

UPDATE 08/2020: This review is out of date. The most recent review of the primed "Plastic" option is here. You will want to watch it. Gallery also included.

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Hero Forge, the miniature 3D printing service, has again updated their plastic offerings. Aside from the somewhat pricey metals, they now offer “Plastic” and “Premium Plastic”. Premium Plastic, which I wrote about previously, used to named Gray Plastic when it was first introduced (replacing the now defunct Ultra Detail). What used to be Strong Plastic (Nylon) is no longer offered. It was not particularly good, as the texture was too rough to take paint well. The newest offering, replacing Strong Plastic is just called Plastic.

Full disclosure: Hero Forge offered me a figure to test out without any expectation that I’d write a review. They were looking for feedback for their new material, but were open to any post I’d like to make about it.

First off, I have to say the figure creator has a lot of new options. There are more two-handed weapon poses, more weapons, more outfits, more headgear and more skin options. Many of the items from my character creation wish list I identified in my last post have been addressed. They could probably add a few more pose variants, but that’s a nit pick. I’m even more impressed with the character rendering options than before. Bravo, Hero Forge.

So how does Plastic compare with Premium Plastic?

The Plastic option costs $19.99 while the Premium option costs $29.99. The new Plastic option appears (I’m assuming here) to use Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) while the Premium option uses Stereolithography printing.  Stereolithography allows for a much finer detail as the layers are much thinner.

Halfling Sorceress printed with the Plastic option

The detail on the Plastic model is better than their prior offerings. The quality is much better than the old “Strong Plastic”, and probably equivalent to the “Ultra Detail” they used to offer. However, you can still see the banding created by the FDM process.

This means there will be a little bit of challenge hiding this texture when the model is painted. This is not generally a major problem if you prime and paint, but can become apparent on broad or flat surfaces like a cape or shield. A slightly thicker layer of paint should help with this, but if you use washes to shade, the wash may follow the contours left by the printing process, rather than the figure detail. Priming is a must.

Secondarily, some fine details will be lost. In the above picture, you see an up-close view of the standard Plastic offering. I added a black wash to allow for better pictures. Keep in mind that the wash over-emphasizes the print layers.

The Problem with Star Wars

I've been thinking a lot about Star Wars this week… and about the “controversy” around The Last Jedi.

First, let’s get this out of the way: we're a bunch of nerds arguing about a movie series. This is the very definition of “first world problem” and none of this really matters. Second, it’s OK to dislike TLJ, just as it is OK to love it. Third, I didn't hate The Last Jedi, but I didn't love it either… and that's what everyone is talking about, so I might as well too.

Here’s my thesis about the problem with the new Star Wars trilogy: it needed a “show runner”. Bear with me as I lay out my case.

The prequels (Ep I - III) have a better story. They are not good movies, but they have an amazing plot. If George had let others (like Kasden) craft the scripts and dialogue, and there had been better acting, they could have been amazing. The story was there, but poorly executed. I also posit that their importance is because of Palpatine’s story, not Vader’s. Anakin was a patsy. Palpatine was one bad-ass motherf@#%$!... But I'm straying off-point.

The point is that Lucas had a vision of the Machiavellian machinations which would lead a Senator of a back water planet to become Emperor of the Galaxy. Palpatine was playing a literal long game. Encouraging a civil war. Setting up the clones. Making his planet a victim so he could rise from obscurity. This shit had layers upon layers. It was an amazing idea ruined by terrible scripts… But the idea was there. A single over-arcing plot to tie the 3 movies together (even if it was poorly executed).

Best Board Games for the Nascent Board Gamer

So, I recently ran across a “Best Five Board Games” list made by some random website that appears to have no actual experience with board gaming. Their picks were utterly sad and pathetic, including the likes of Monopoly, Life, and Candy Land.

If you’re an avid board gamer, you probably already have a “gateway game” list to play with those friends who are not in your normal board game group… but here is my take on the best introductory games, simply because I have a gaming blog and the more we spread the word, the better. The list, in no particular order…

Alhambra  

This set collection and puzzle game is light enough for the novice gamer, but has some real strategic meat on its bones. In Alhambra ($25), you collect gardens, pavilions, and various building tiles to expand and beautify your 13th century fortress. Money management is critical as you gain bonus purchases for paying the exact amount for a tile. The player who has collected the most of specific tiles sets over the course of 3 rounds will score the points for a win.

Catan 5th Edition  

Originally published in 1995 as “Settlers of Catan”, this resource management and building game kick-started the board gaming renaissance. Over 20 years later, Catan ($35) is in its 5th Edition with numerous expansions and spin-offs. In Catan, you collect the resources of brick, wheat, ore, wood, and wool in order to expand your settlements to become cities.

This “gateway” game is easy to teach in that you can compare it to existing popular games like Monopoly. You build “Settlements” instead of Houses and upgrade to “Cities” instead of Hotels. Expanding your road system onto valuable resource tiles is key, similar to expanding the number of properties in that other game. Players who have grown up on Hasbro and Parker Brothers will find a familiar home in Catan, but with a much greater depth of play (and hopefully fewer fits of crying).

Codenames / Codenames: Pictures   

Codenames borders on the “party game” genre, but I honestly love this game and everyone to whom I have introduced this game has also loved it. For around $12, what’s not to love? In summary, you give clues to your teammates in order for them to make the word associations and select one or more cards, while trying to avoid selecting the other team’s cards.  I believe Codename: Pictures is slightly superior in that there are a lots of clue variations that will arise due to the esoteric artwork (which is the same reason I also enjoy the next pick).

Owlbear's D&D Holiday Gift Guide

The holidays are here, so you might be wondering what to get your gaming friends (or, let’s be honest… probably a little gift for yourself). The great news is that there is a whole plethora of D&D-related gifts for a wide variety of diverse gaming interests. [Updated for 2018]

D&D RPG

The recent release schedule has had quite an array of books for the tabletop gamer. For players and Dungeon Masters alike, Xanathar’s Guide to Everything ($30) includes 32 new class paths and new spells for PCs, as well as offering an array of of advice for DM’s on encounter building, proficiencies, traps, and downtime activities. Volo’s Guide to Monsters ($34) gives DM’s new variants of classic, iconic monsters as well as includes other fantastic creatures that didn’t quite make it into the Monster Manual.

The most recent adventure offerings have included a variety of adventuring locales for gaming groups with a variety of play styles.

Storm King’s Thunder ($34) is sprawling Sword Coast campaign crossing the wilds of Faerun from Waterdeep to Anauroch and nearly all places in between. This sandbox-like adventure path has multitude of hooks and side quests all over its massive Sword Coast map.

Tales from the Yawning Portal ($34) brings back old-school dungeon crawls from prior editions, updating them for D&D 5th Edition. Classics include the Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, the Sunless Citadel, White Plume Mountain, and the infamous Tomb of Horrors.

Tomb of Annihilation ($34) provides a Chultan hommage to the classic Isle of Dread and Tomb of Horrors adventures, updating the hex crawl style campaign for 5th Edition, as well as throwing in some old-school death.

Waterdeep and Undermountain reappear in 5th Edition with Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and Dungeon of the Mad Mage. Lead the chase for a vast treasure within the City of Splendors or delve the darkness beneath the Yawning Portal.

For fans of Critical Role, you can now play in Matthew Mercer’s world, the Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting (apostrophes included at no extra charge) for $26.

Or if Tolkien is more your thing, Cubicle 7 has converted its One Ring game to D&D 5th Edition rules with Adventures in Middle Earth. If you've wanted to play a low fantasy version of D&D, especially set in Tolkien's universe, this is probably right up your alley.

In the accessories category, there is the newly revised Dungeon Master's Screen Reincarnated ($10), the thick, folding cardboard D&D Adventure Grid (more than just a battle mat at $20) and the venerable, but still available D&D Dungeon Tiles: Wilderness Master Set ($18), soon to be reprinted along with the Dungeon and City master sets.

If you’re playing on the grid, you may want to pick up some D&D Icons of the Realms or Pathfinder Battles miniatures… and for the DM who has everything, there is the massively, huge Tiamat Ma’al Drakar miniature for about $100 from Reaper Miniatures. Can that thing even be called a “miniature”?

D&D Board Games

But it’s not all about D&D role-playing. Wizards of the Coast has expanded the brand into some really amazing board games.

Wrath of Ashardalon miniatures

For those who don’t have time for a regular rpg home game, or may be missing a Dungeon Master to run the group, Wizards of the Coast has a series of dungeon-crawl board games that might serve as a reasonable substitute. The most recent version is Tomb of Annihilation (not to be confused with the D&D adventure of the same name).

The Temple of Elemental Evil version introduced campaign play, which the prior versions lacked. However, Wrath of Ashardalon probably comes with the best variety of miniatures, including an amazing Huge Red Dragon. Not only are theses fun dungeon crawl board games, the miniatures themselves make these games a fantastic value if you also play D&D tabletop.

Assault of the Giants takes on the area-control board game with asymmetric play and features a beautiful Sword Coast game board and over a dozen giant miniatures. Even though the giant miniatures are not as large as the Icons of the Realms miniatures, they are still sizable enough for rpg play in a pinch. This also comes in a painted miniature premium version.

Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate reskins a D&D theme onto Betrayal at the House on the Hill. Fans of the original will almost certainly like this version (full review here).

Dragonfire brings Catalyst Games’ Crossfire deck-builder mechanics into the D&D world. This game not only offers cooperative deck building, you can also play campaign scenarios that allow your characters to progress similar to a legacy game. I will have to opportunity to play this title more extensively this weekend and I’m looking forward to seeing how it fares. Fans of the Shadowrun Crossfire game are bound love this D&D themed version.

Tyrants of the Underdark combines deck building with area control in an Underdark themed game board (my initial review here). Like other deck builders, you mix and match cards from different factions to give the game a huge replayability factor.

There are multiple paths to victory and the lead can swing wildly from player to player across turns. Victory points at the end are almost always very close, making the game play exciting to the very last turn. This is one of the top board games in my collection, and probably ranks just behind Roll for the Galaxy as my favorite.

Lords of Waterdeep along with its expansion Scoundrels of Skullport provide a solid worker-placement board game. Though it is now several years old, it is still in print and is well regarded even among the most jaded board gamers. This is also a great “gateway” board game for D&D groups that may not be as into the board game scene.

D&D Adjacent Games

Though not strictly D&D themed, there are several fantasy games that give a similar flavor.

If you are lucky enough to live near a 5 Below thrift store, keep an eye out for Magic the Gathering: Arena of the Planeswalkers for only $5 ($10 - $12 on Amazon)! This Heroscape-based game uses characters and creatures from the Magic the Gathering universe in an entertaining, squad-based miniatures skirmish game. But the best part is that it come with 35 miniatures. That’s a fantastic value at $5 or even $10.

It’s $5 expansion, Battle for Zendikar come with another 16 miniatures. That over 50 miniatures for between $12 to $18!!!  If you are really lucky, you can also find Shadows over Innistrad for less than $10 and add another 25 figures to that total! Hell, even if you hate skirmish board games, you can pick up 75 miniatures for under $30… and the game is pretty fun, too!

While not quite the stunning Planeswalker deal, Zombicide: Black Plague offers a zombie apocalypse with fantasy flavor. Zombicide has been so popular that it has generated many expansions, but this stand-alone version is probably the best, especially if you like the fantasy theme.

Speaking of fantasy re-themes, Defenders of the Realm generates the race-against-the-clock excitement of games like Pandemic, but instead of fighting disease, you are fighting orcs and dragons!

And lastly, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention one of the old-timer dungeon crawlers, Descent: Journeys in the Dark and its many expansions. Descent now includes an app from Fantasy Flight that allows all the players to play cooperatively against the game without the Overlord player. (Imperial Assault offers a similar dungeon-crawl-slash-race-against-the-clock experience, but in the Star Wars universe).

Final Thoughts

We're definitely in a golden age of gaming. Between D&D and other fantasy rpgs and board games, there are dozens of ways to get your fantasy kicks this year.

Board Games: Owlbear Reviews Betrayal at Baldur's Gate

With Betrayal at Baldur's Gate, Avalon Hill has expanded the array D&D themed board games published this year. When placed alongside Assault of the Giants (review pending), Dragonfire, and the Tomb of Annihilation board games (as well as prior year offerings such as Tyrants of the Underdark), there is quite a variety of play style offerings in 2017 for D&D board game enthusiasts. If you are already familiar with Betrayal at the House on the Hill, Betrayal at Baldur's Gate will be super easy to pick up.

Like its predecessor, the players move around revealing the board one tile at a time while encountering Events, gaining Items, and discovering Omens. Eventually, the Haunt is revealed which determines the win conditions for the traitor (usually one player) and the heroes (everyone else).

Full disclosure: I have only had the chance to play a couple of haunt scenarios in the new Betrayal at Baldur's Gate, so you might want to keep that in mind when you consider my evaluation.

The Pros

First, I'll start with what I really enjoy about the game.

The new characters all have a special power, like a spell, or ranged attack, or re-roll mechanic for example. This gives each character a bit more flavor and adds to the already high replay factor.

The D&D theme is well done in terms of the scenarios, events, flavor text, etc. I wasn't sure a thematic mashup of Betrayal and D&D would work, but so far, so good. Also, there are quite a few D&D in-jokes and Easter Eggs sprinkled throughout the game tiles and text for those with an eye for detail.

The new haunt roll mechanic also ensures that the haunt cannot happen prior to the 3rd Omen card. Unfortunately, you can't read through the haunts without spoiling them, so I don't have enough data to know how well they fit the theme. However, in one play test, the haunt involved all players versus the game. There was no traitor, and working together to beat the boss monster gave a familiar D&D feel.

I do like the way the buildings and streets combine to make a large "ground level" map, with a smaller catacombs level. I also like that each level has its own draw pile. In the original, a critical room can often be accidentally "buried" at the bottom of the draw pile because of the way the draw mechanic works. This does not occur in the new version.

The sex pre-painted miniatures are also pretty nice and, as a bonus, are sized appropriately for D&D table top.

The Big Con

That said, one of my biggest complaints with the various Betrayal games (the original, Widow's Walk, and now this one) is that the scenarios do not appear to be play tested very well, or well edited in some cases.

How do I know?

We almost always have questions about the traitor powers or actions within the haunt. And I'm not just talking about minor questions, but almost always key issues with the way the powers are worded that make the haunt rules overly ambiguous.

My wife and I are veteran gamers. We have played the different Betrayal games as well as other traitor-mechanic games like Shadows over Camelot, Battlestar Galactica, Dead of Winter, etc... The design challenge with the Betrayal games over other traitor mechanic games is that every scenario has slightly different rules for the traitor and heroes. Because of this, the game designers need to be extraordinarily detail-oriented when writing up the haunt rules.

Due to the age of the original Betrayal game, haunt clarifications can sometimes be found online, but not so for Widow's Walk or Baldur's Gate, so you are on your own to interpret the rules as written.

For the hero group, the players can generally come to a consensus after discussion if there are any doubts. However, the traitor is usually on their own to interpret any potential rule problems or vague wording, unless they want to give away their secret powers or victory conditions.

I have yet to play a haunt that hasn't had an issue where the text was not entirely clear and required some varying amount of interpretation. In almost every case, a single sentence (or two at most) would have cleared up the confusion. A good editor should have caught these ambiguities, but I have the distinct impression the the designers did their own editing... or if there was an editor, the editor was only looking for grammatical issues, and not rules ambiguity. A play test of each haunt should haven eliminated most of these problems.

All boards games have some amount of rules vagueness that often need a forum, faq or site like Board Game Geek to help, but it is more pronounced in the Betrayal games simply because there are some 30 to 40 different haunts that all may have different issues, and you are not able to read the haunt rules in advance without spoiling the game.

This has been a big problem for me in that any win or loss is tainted by the "Hey, did we play that part correctly?" discussion after the game. It often takes away some of the shine of a win, or adds to the frustration of a loss. I don't mind losing. Losing a competitive game can be lots of fun. But I hate losing when it later becomes clear that an incorrectly interpreted rule may have changed the whole scenario or player strategy.

As a non-spoiler example, one of the haunts had a big monster with some smaller minions. The minions came out first, and the big boss a couple turns later. In the haunt, it appears to state that the minions go away once the boss monster comes out, but a sentence or two later, it implies the exact opposite. Within the same haunt, the text appeared to imply that the boss monster may be able to attack more than one character given certain conditions, but it didn't explicitly state it. As a group, we ruled that the minions stayed and continued to attack, but the boss monster did not attack more than once. That seemed to be the most balanced interpretation, and we won the scenario... but we may not have won if the boss monster were allowed a second attack, so the victory felt diminished given that we still don't know what the correct ruling is. Since that we had not just one, but two rules clarifications required for the haunt, I was a bit disappointed in that particular scenario, and that has tainted my view of the game for the moment.

Final Thoughts 

Don't get me wrong. I don't dislike the game. If you are a fan of the other Betrayal titles and you like D&D, you will almost certainly enjoy this mash up. However, my recent experiences with poorly worded haunts in the various Betrayal incarnations has tarnished what would otherwise be a really fun experience. It may be that I'm pre-judging Baldur's Gate too hard based upon the play experience with the other Betrayal titles. But it does not bode well that one of the first haunts I encountered had the same problem.

I would give it 3.5 stars of 5. It's a strong Buy recommendation for fans of the Betrayal line, but if you are also annoyed by rule ambiguities of the haunts in the other titles, you will likely find the same issues in this one. The great news is that there are plenty of D&D themed board games to choose from if this one is not your cup of tea.